Engineering Exposition- A new experience

Wow. That was my reaction after going through the 34^th Engineering Exposition here at Virginia Tech. Each year, Virginia Tech hosts expositions for different career fields. The expo, short for exposition, offered many opportunities for business majors, and engineers. I went to the second day of the expo and coincidentally that was the day designed for engineers. I was lucky. I dressed to impress that day, suit and tie, and all that jazz. I was the man who was determined to get an internship. Before entering the expo, I was scared. Scared because of the stories a friend of mine told me; not all of the companies are looking for freshmen. It is a given that it is very hard for freshmen to land a co-op, or an internship, this is due to our lack of experience in the field and as well as the fact they look at your freshmen grade point average (GPA). I was also scared because most companies are looking for U.S. Citizens, which I, an international student, is not. With all these negative thoughts in mind, I still went in and gave it a shot. “You never know till you try” that was the mentality I had going as I entered the hall.

At first, I looked around and observed what others are doing. Make eye contact. Shake hands. Introduce yourself and tell them what exactly you are looking for. I was surprisingly comfortable with what I was doing. I talked to big companies such as Honda, Boeing, and General Electric, along with the 10 other companies that I went to, small companies, but it really doesn't matter, I did it anyways. Compared to what I heard about companies rejecting your resume’s, more than 10 companies offered to take my resume, and even one company did a mini interview about what a science fair project during my high school year about consisted of. They seemed very interested. It was a great feeling. I felt accomplished. I know that the field is very competitive, and I am not really expecting lot from this event, but I was proud of myself because I went it for the kill. I did it anyways, despite the scary stories my peers have told me. This is a life lesson learned, just try because you never know how an event can turn out. If you fail, then you have made a wise decision and you know what to do in case an event of some sort comes up again.